Daniel 3 is the test of allegiance. It is not about being delivered from the fire. It is about the willingness to go through the fire.

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were all tested. (I won’t use the Babylonian names forced on them.) They had survived in Babylon by learning the culture (rather than be summarily executed) and contributing to the culture as needed… but to a point.

There will be fire to test our allegiances. We can celebrate these three men for coming through the fire, but I think that misses the point. We should imitate their willingness to go into the fire. Period.

This is the hard point for culturalized Christianity. We can dive into the extremes of culture and become so enculturated to either extreme that we just get absorbed. We have to know when to stand. But too often, our “stands” are more politically driven than theologically driven. Our allegiances have become muddled.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Zariah were part of the Babylonian culture. If you were to meet them on the streets, they would look like Babylonian officials in some way. They would speak the language. They could engage with the stories and literature of the day. They could probably cite Babylonian law codes to fit their jobs. But they also knew when to take a stand. This is our American struggle. When their allegiances were tested they knew to fall on their allegiance to God no matter the cost.

We can be absorbed in progressive causes or we can be absorbed in what used to be called “conservative” causes. (I need to find another word because it’s beyond that pale now.) We struggle to stand outside our culture. We aren’t rigorous in our thinking. We are not Bonhoeffer, or Barth, or MLK.

I am as susceptible as anyone. I certainly feel the pressure leaving my former denomination (that by all outward culturally Christian measures is still very successful) and I feel the pressure in my new denomination. My discernment and thinking is tested. I have to build a life of discernment, wisdom, awareness, and allegiance.

My theology needs to be tested. My allegiances need to know the fire. I need to know Christ more than anything.

When we face the fire of testing, whether it’s a literal fire like Daniel 3 or a lions den like Daniel 6, the outcome is never our call.

What is our call? Our allegiance.